Saturday, December 23, 2000
Wayne County Rte. 104 Trail Update - Ed @ 16:32 EST
Through the efforts of snowmobile groups in Wayne County the deposition to enforce "No Snowmobiling" on the South side of Rte. 104 East of Rte. 88, by NYS Police and Wayne County Sheriff's Dept.,has been temporarily vacated. That is to say - "no snowmobiling" will NOT be enforced. Other violations such as but not limited to registration requirements, equipment requirements and any violation of the NYS Snowmobile Law can and will be enforced. There is a petition being circulated to all interested snowmobilers protesting the NYS DOT efforts to close this section. The petition will be presented to Assemblyman Robert Oaks. The NYS DOT and NYS PARKS and REC are meeting to determine a long range resolution of this issue.
Thursday, December 21, 2000
Snowmobilers Urged to Contact US Park Service - Ed @ 19:44 EST
Thursday, December 21, 2000 9:47 AM Please consider writing a letter to the National Park Service requesting they reconsider the Record of Decision and support revised Alternative E that was contained within the Winter Use Plan and was reecommended by all cooperating agencies. Alternative E allows reasonable management and snowmobiling in Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Rockefeller Parkway as highlighted below. Thanks, Manzullo Urges Snowmobile Enthusiasts to Contact the National Park Service [WASHINGTON] Congressman Donald Manzullo (R-IL) of the House Small Business Committee urged snowmobile enthusiasts to contact the National Park Service(NPS) about its proposed rule to ban snowmobile use in several national parks. On December 18, 2000, the NPS published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would phase out snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park(WY-MT-ID), the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway (WY), and, with some exceptions, Grand Teton National Park (WY) by the winter of 2003-2004. The NPS also proposes interim measures to limit the impacts of snowmobiles before their use is completely banned during the winters of 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. The main aim of the proposed rule is to shift over-snow motorized use of the these parks from snowmobile use to snowcoach use. The purpose of publishing the proposed rule is to solicit comments from the general public about the snowmobile phase-out plan of the NPS. The deadline for submitting comments is January 17, 2001. If you wish to comment on the proposed rule, please respectfully address your correspondence to: For those interested in reading the complete rule, please refer to the web site of the Federal Register: STATEMENT "The National Park Service is beginning the drumbeat to ban motorized recreation in our national parks. The snowmobile ban in Yellowstone, the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, and Grand Teton National Park is the first of many steps. The only way to stop this is for the American people to flood the National Park Service with letters and e-mails asking it to restore responsible recreation access to our national parks. "If implemented, this rule would seriously harm thousands of small businesses and erode the tax base of numerous local school districts that depend on outdoor recreation revenues. "Fortunately, the Republican-led Congress recognized the harsh impact the snowmobile ban would have on small businesses and schools when we added an amendment to the year-end spending bill last Friday that would prevent the National Park Service from implementing this regulation over the next two winters. However, the proposed regulation would ban all snowmobile use in Yellowstone, the Parkway, and in most areas of the Grand Tetons by the winter of 2003. It is time for your voices to be heard. Contact the National Park Service by January 17, 2001 with your comments and your suggestions on how to write a better rule to govern snowmobile use in our national parks."
Subject: Manzullo Urges Snowmobile Enthusiasts to Contact the National Park Service
We just received this Press Release from US Congressman Manzullo (R-IL)regarding the Yellowstone, Grand Teton Record of Decision. We feel that Congressman Manzullo is right on target with the issues highlighted in his release. Congressman Manzullo is VERY supportive of the snowmobile community and held a US Congressional Hearing on the announced Park Closures in the spring of 2000.
Please distribute and print this release and these related comments as you see fit. You may wish to cc your letter to the NPS to your US Congressman and/or Senator. To find their e-mail, mailing address or fax number,please visit our web site at www.snowmobile.org.
Ed Klim
President, ISMA
December 20, 2000
**** For Immediate Release ****
Contact: Kevin Opstrup
(202) 225-5676
National Park Service
Ranger Activities Division
1849 C St NW Rm 7408
Washington DC 20240
fax: (202) 208-6756
e-mail: WASO_Regulations@nps.gov
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html
Arctic Cat's Four-Stroke Receives Praise - Ed @ 11:50 EST
"The Body" gives the C TECH 4 a thumbs-up! Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA - December 20, 2000 After announcing its schedule to begin full production of its new cleaner, quieter four-stroke snowmobile for the 2001-2002 season, Arctic Cat has been turning heads. Coined as "Green Day", the company celebrated its accomplishment, welcoming Minnesota VIPs from across the state, including the Governor, Jesse Ventura. Greeted by a sea of green t-shirts worn by all Arctic Cat employees to signify the occasion, Governor Ventura congratulated the employees on a job well done stating, "What's really most exciting about this for me is to see a company regulating itself and not waiting for the government to step in and impose." Before arriving at Arctic Cat, the Governor took time to complete his weekly radio show live, joined by Arctic Cat president and CEO, Chris Twomey. There, Twomey told listeners that Arctic Cat remains committed to refining and perfecting four-stroke engines and other technologies that specifically address emissions and sound concerns. "Our ability to bring a four-stroke product to market next year reflects several years of development aimed at meeting customer needs, which include requests for quieter, cleaner machines," said Twomey. "We are continuously at work to improve the emissions and sound level performance of traditional two-stroke engine technology." Before departing Arctic Cat, the Governor was taken on a tour of the facility and accepted a personalized Arctic Cat coat and helmet. After listening to the Arctic Cat four-stroke's C TECH 4 engine idle, the Governor responded with a hearty thumbs-up.
Tuesday, December 19, 2000
More on Adirondack Trails - Ed @ 13:58 EST
First published Saturday, Dec. 16, 2000 New York is in the early stages of piecing together a plan that could open more of the Adirondack mountains to snowmobiles by building miles of trails on privately owned land -- or could bar the machines from huge parts of the forest. That open question has set the stage for a new confrontation between snowmobilers and environmentalists, who long have battled over which parts of the Adirondack Park should be open to vehicles and which should be off-limits. Neither side knows what shape the state's plan ultimately will take as officials hold a series of public meetings over the next several months. But with the state tackling the issue, environmentalists are looking for the opportunity to, in effect, take back some of the Adirondack Park's 6 million acres from snowmobiles -- especially on public land, where they complain that the machines annoy snowshoers and skiers. The snowmobilers want to keep those trails open and create more paths on private land. And the state seems poised to accommodate both. When their comprehensive snowmobile plan is finished -- perhaps by the end of 2002 -- the government wants to have a strategy that will preserve New York's $500 million snowmobile industry but also will protect the natural resources in the Adirondacks. ``These two things are intertwined. We can do them both,'' DEC First DeputyCommissioner Glen Bruening said. Both sides see the state's plans for re-examining its snowmobile trails as their best opportunity in a decade to reshape their often ill-tempered relationship. ``We always seem to be the ones who lose. We're willing to work with everybody, but we have to stand up for our members and say they have the same right to be in the park as anyone else,'' said Jeff Johnson, the president of the New York State Snowmobile Association. ``I think everything's on the table right now,'' said John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Adirondack Park Agency started looking at their snowmobile plan earlier this year. About 128,000 snowmobiles are registered in New York each year, and the heaviest area of use is in the Adirondacks. The disagreement over how to manage that use began when New York said itwanted to build a seamless system of trails through the park, where many of the parts in its spiderweb of paths are disconnected, making it hard to travel long distances. Because the state puts limits on how many public trails can be used for snowmobiles, the DEC and the Park Agency want to plow out much of the new network on private property controlled through conservation easements. Such a plan would effectively let the state skirt a law that puts an 848-mile cap on snowmobile trails on public land in the Adirondacks, environmentalists complain. Many environmentalists fear that any such expansion would come at the price of more pollution and more noise. The state has made easements -- buying development rights to land but leaving the title in private hands -- a central part of its preservation efforts in the Adirondacks. The agreements keep the land from being developed but also can give the state the ability to put it to recreational use at about a third of the cost of buying the property outright. Building a new trail system most likely would require the state to buy some new easements, though it already has thousands of acres at its disposal, Bruening said. ``If you want to keep people out of the park, just let all the people with machines in,'' said John Nemjo, who runs the Mountainman Outdoor Supply Co. in Inlet, an isolated area on the western fringe of the Adirondacks, but lives 70 miles away in Clinton, south of Utica. In the end, Nemjo said it was the snowmobiles' screaming engines and choking exhaust that drove him from his winter home in the Adirondacks. He had been drawn there in the first place by the mountains' promise of peace and quiet, but the machines seemed to be everywhere: on the wooded trails he liked to ski and in the forest near his house. Their hum kept him up at night. ``It was awful,'' said Nemjo, who spends his winters near Utica. ``That's not what I came up there for.'' Both sides are looking at a compromise of sorts that would let the state build more trails on private land if they agree to make some of the trails on public property off-limits to snowmobiles, in effect letting snowmobilers stay in the Adirondacks but shuffling them out of the forest preserve. ``We're ready to come to an agreement on that,'' Johnson said. ``Our main concern is that we don't want to have fewer miles of trails up there when this is over, but we're willing to work on the details.'' Most snowmobilers tend to prefer driving on private land because the trails are wider and they are allowed to pack down their tracks, Johnson said. State laws put sharp limits on the kinds of modifications that can be made to trails that run across public land. ``Moving the snowmobiles out of the forest preserve is a laudable goal, but we have to be sure that there isn't an impact on the forest preserve,'' Sheehan said. ``Communities can benefit a lot from snowmobilers who eat in restaurants and sleep in hotels. But we would hate to see communities open themselves up to snowmobiling only to see that it's contaminated their drinking water,'' he added. ``The whole thing is kind of a double-edged sword,'' said John Stouffer, the legislative director at the Sierra Club in Albany. ``Moving off them the forest preserve removes a barrier to designating land as wilderness and that's a good thing. But the pollution issues remain.'' The Sierra Club wants the government to do an environmental quality review before it moves any further with the snowmobile plan. After a similar Bruening said that when the state's plan is completed, it will serve as a reference for drafting the rules that govern individual parcels of the Adirondacks, tracts known as units. The DEC is putting together management plans for each unit in the Adirondacks and the Catskills, and any changes made in the snowmobile plan likely would be reflected in those rules, he said. Before that can happen, the DEC has to finish building a list of all the trails in the Adirondacks. Officials suspect there are almost 848 miles of trails on public land -- meaning they would have to raise the cap if they wanted to build more -- but they will not know precisely how many until their inventory is finished early next year. When that process ends in January or February, the DEC and the Park Agency will begin holding public meetings that Bruenig said will be used to shape the snowmobile plan.
Fight for access to trails heats up Snowmobilers and environmentalists both see opportunity in a state plan
taking shape.
review, the National Park Service decided in November to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
Thursday, December 14, 2000
Wayne County Rt.104 Trail Threatened - Ed @ 11:53 EST
Snowmobile trail use is disputed (December 14, 2000) -- A communication problem between two state agencies that could have led to snowmobilers in Wayne County being cited for using a state-recognized trail could be resolved by the weekend, state officials say. Merton Edwards, an engineer with the Department of Transportation in Newark, gave Wayne County Sheriff Richard Pisciotti on Monday a deposition asking that snowmobilers traveling the unpaved areas along Route 104, east of the Route 88 intersection, be ticketed. But that stretch of Route 104 has been used as a snowmobile trail for 30 years, said Wayne County planner Sharon Lilla. About $25,000 in state funding generated by snowmobile registration fees has been used to develop trails in Wayne County, including the Route 104 corridor east of Route 88. And a map of snowmobile trails published and distributed by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation includes a stretch of Route 104 -- from Route 414 east about 5 miles -- that falls in the area considered off-limits by Edwards. Edwards said he asked the sheriff to act because snowmobile and all-terrain vehicles operating along the road have worn away vegetation, causing erosion problems. Snowmobilers and all-terrain vehicle users have built bridges over drainage ditches and small creeks along the road, posing a greater risk of injury and exposing the DOT to legal actions. "In the past we have removed structures and done all sorts of things, but it hasn't stopped the use," Edwards said. "To turn a blind eye, we're more or less agreeing to the use and we really can't. "The idea of the order is to protect the (DOT) and the right of way from the damage that's been occurring from the additional uses." DOT spokesman Michael Fleischer said the conflicting actions were the result of miscommunication that both agencies hoped to resolve quickly. "We are going to work with (the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation) to attempt to rectify the situation. We want to provide a safe, environmentally friendly access to the snowmobile trail," Fleischer said. Said Allen James, a spokesman for the Office of Parks: "We're working with DOT to resolve the issue, and the trail should be open by the weekend." Wednesday, even after hearing that state officials planned to resolve the confusion, Lilla was hesitant to consider the issue closed. "I don't consider the issue dead. I need a formal confirmation that the deposition has been withdrawn and the sheriff no longer has a directive to arrest snowmobilers on that trail," Lilla said. Snowmobiles are permitted along Route 104 west of Route 88 because that is not labeled a "controlled access highway." Enforcing the deposition would have come as a surprise to snowmobilers who have used the trail for years. Pisciotti planned to have his snowmobile patrol hand out fliers to snowmobilers along the trail for a couple of weeks before anybody would be ticketed.
By Bennett J. Loudon
Democrat and Chronicle
Monday, December 11, 2000
Remsen to Lake Placid Trail 7 Corridor Open - Ed @ 15:07 EST
NYS snowmobile Corridor Trail 7 from Remsen to Please obey all signs and detours and barricades. Please note that three bridges are closed to snowmobile use. They are Kayuta Tressel,Woodhull Creek Tressel and Twitchell Creek Tressel. All other bridges are snowmobile accessable this season. Please note this. The corridor is open for snowmobiling to the New York State Snowmobile Association and it's member clubs by a permit granted by New York State Department of Transportation. We remind all that this corridor is open in all areas from Remsen to Lake Clear and by state law no permit is required to ride this trail. If you should have questions contact NYSSA at 315-736-8187. Also stay on the corridor in environmentally sensitive areas that do not allow motorized use on those lands. Thank you
Lake Clear Junction is open for the snowmobile season.
Jeffrey Johnson NYSSA - President
Friday, December 08, 2000
Snowmobile Makers Sue US Park Service - Ed @ 19:25 EST
SNOWMOBILE MANUFACTURERS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST NATIONAL PARK SERVICE FOR CLOSING PARKS TO SNOWMOBILES (Haslett, MI) December 6, 2000 - The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and other parties today filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service to stop a planned ban of snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Citing that the ban would reverse decades of environmentally acceptable snowmobile use in the parks, ISMA said it had no choice but to pursue legal action on behalf of four million American snowmobilers and others who hope to visit the park in the future. "The federal government's decision is badly flawed. There is no basis in fact or law to totally eliminate snowmobile use," said ISMA President Ed Klim. "Hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks and RVs flow through these parks every summer and the wildlife has suffered no ill effects. While radical special interest groups argue that snowmobile emissions and sound are detrimental to the parks, snowmobiles have always met all national air quality standards. Furthermore, there have been no ndependent scientific studies that have demonstrated snowmobiles cause significant harm to humans, animals or the environment. "Concerns regarding emissions and sound fail to account for new generations of cleaner and quieter snowmobiles and manufacturers' voluntary actions that have eliminated most air quality issues," said Klim. Nearly eight of ten (78%) of Americans believe snowmobiles should be allowed in national parks, according to a recent poll conducted by SWR Research. Last year snowmobilers won a lawsuit in which Federal Judge John Sedwick invalidated the Park Service's previous attempt to ban snowmobiles in large portions of Alaska's Denali National Park. The Yellowstone lawsuit challenges the arbitrary and capricious decision, arising in part from intervention by Administration political appointees, to reverse decades of traditional activity and terminate regulated snowmobile use for winter recreation on the road systems of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway. For years, this traditional activity was carefully managed and encouraged by the National Park Service and provided thousands of Americans an opportunity to enjoy the winter wonders of the Yellowstone plateau and the Grand Tetons. Instead of continuing this reasonable approach, the effort to update winter use management plans was hijacked, the environmental impact statement process corrupted, new anti-snowmobile alternatives injected at the last moment, meaningful participation by cooperating states, communities, and citizens cut off, and critical facts and science disregarded. Statutory duties and obligations were cast aside and accepted interpretations of law twisted to stage a grand political gesture - the banning of snowmobiles from National Parks including Yellowstone and Grand Teton. ISMA is an organization representing the four-snowmobile manufacturers.
Snowmobilers use the exact same roads automobiles use -except in far smaller numbers - and they have the same non-effect on wildlife."
ISMA maintains strong partnerships with the American Council of Snowmobile Associations and the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations.
Tuesday, December 05, 2000
Time For Snowmobilers To Speak On The Forest Preserve - Ed @ 19:48 EST
See Message on NYSSA site.
http://www.nyssnowassoc.org
2001- Recreational Trail Grant Application - Ed @ 12:23 EST
NYSSA 12/5 - 2001- Recreational Trail Grant Application 2001- Recreational Trail Grant Application and complete program information is available at the NYSSA web site. Follow the Recreational Trail Grant Application link
News Update
http://www.nyssnowassoc.org
Friday, December 01, 2000
US EPA Issues final snowmobile emission findings - Ed @ 05:26 EST
12/1 - US EPA Issues final snowmobile emission findings Here is a news release pertaining to the Final Findings that were issued by the US EPA regarding snowmobile emissions on November 17, 2000. The Final Findings correct the initial findings that were issued by the EPA on January 29, 1999. You may remember that the Initial Findings sent out by the EPA in 1999 were widely used by the environmental extremist movement to attack the snowmobile community. The corrected Final Findings help us to correct the misinformation in the marketplace. Please use this information as you see fit and pass it along to those other interested parties on your e-mail list. Thank you. Ed Klim ______________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ed Klim EPA Findings Vindicate Snowmobile Industry East Lansing, MI, November 30, 2000 - The four major snowmobile manufacturers today said they welcome the release of the corrected Non-Road Emissions Findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) for snowmobiles and other non-road engines. The manufacturers have worked to provide technical data to the EPA since 1993. The corrected numbers released by the EPA show that previous figures widely promoted by anti-snowmobile extremist groups were maliciously exaggerated by 335%. Unexcusable! The corrected numbers have been released by the EPA following rigerous testing of modern snowmobile engines using procedures that reflects real world use of a snowmobile. These tests were ignored by the extremists, who published eroneous numbers which better suited their cause. "We welcome the regulatory process and look forward to working with the EPA," continued Klim. "But equally important, we welcome the release of the long-awaited corrected emissions numbers. We trust this will put an end to bogus statistics used by desperate extremist groups as scare tactics, designed to impact negatively on the snowmobile industry." The manufacturers have always believed in good science and hopefully all groups will be now obligated to use the correct data as verified by the EPA. The manufacturers have always understood that when President George Bush signed the Clean Air Act in 1990, snowmobile engine emissions would be regulated by the EPA. Since that time, each manufacturer has dramatically improved their engine technology to prepare for requirements of the coming regulatory standard. Based on the corrected numbers issued by the EPA, it is no surprise that the regulatory action for snowmobiles has been postponed since their actual level of significance is minimal. The snowmobile manufacturers will continue to work with the EPA in developing appropriate regulatory standards. In this way, the family sport of snowmobiling will continue to offer great winter recreational opportunities throughout the northern United States, and in particular, in rural communities where the economies are fragile and dependent on the winter tourism that snowmobiling brings.
President, ISMA
President
517/339-7788
For the first time in history, all interested parties will be able to use real numbers. There will be no more fuzzy-math opportunities for extremist groups.